We're having some nice, foggy, overcast mornings at the moment, just the way I like it.
Finally my walks are cool and invigorating once again, it definitely brings back that spring in my step!

Coming back home in the toasty RV I bask for a little in that blissful, deserving moment of a nice hot cup of coffee on a cool day, my little electric 'fireplace' glowing cozily.
But, all thinks come to an end, and around noon the sun will break through and the temp rises to a &^%$#! 81F (25C) again!
I read somewhere that it's that 'I-wish-I-didn't-put-on-that-sweater-this-morning' kind of weather. So true.

Oh well, I can't will it forward I guess, so I'll brave my way through these teasing days and make the best of it.
Nature cheers me up as usual, by putting out some pretty colors.
These trees at the neighbors are fall flowering, on the left a Crape Myrtle and on the right a Clerodendrum:

               

The blossoms of the latter smell something wonderful, a bit like jasmine, and when you rub the leaves between your fingers, the leaf and your fingers smell distinctly like peanut butter hence it's nickname of peanut-butter or skippy-tree!

I've re-sewn some Arugola, mixed Leaf-lettuce, Spinache and Broccoli and 'whaddayaknow' .. they're all coming up!

         

                                                                     

I so hope they'll make it to maturity, it would be so nice to have a little more success growing something, after that dud of a summer crop ...

We went to yet another festival last Sunday, there sure are a lot of them around here all year long, this one took place in McMinnville, the 'Scottish Festival'.              

We were going to check it out 'just for something to do', I mean, a Scottish festival in a small town in the middle of Oregon ... how much can it be?
But wow, were we mistaken, this is a big-time event!

Every year some 25 clans and a whole bunch of vendors set up shop at the local fairgrounds for a weekend of Scottish culture and celebration.
There are games and dance competitions, pipe bands and other genuine Scottish music and of course lots of food and drinks!



Upon entering the grounds (we both got in on senior-tickets this time, 55+) we passed the Scots Honor Guard and followed the path that led us by the booths of all the different clans.

Scotland has approximately 500 clans with members from across the world and many clans still hold gatherings and social events to continue their traditions.
There were about 25 attending this one.

Here's a few:      

On the hour one of 4 different pipe bands, either the Fort Vancouver, Clan MacLeay, Eugene Highlanders & Willamette Valley band, marched over the grounds. 
They sure made your ears ring!

                    

How about this cutie?

At noon, all the clans gathered for a parade to show of their 'colors' ..

                    ... and even their dog's colors

That's a Dandie Dinmont Terrier, the only breed to have its own tartan! 
There was a booth dedicated to this adorable Scottish breed:

                             

Leading the parade was the Scottish Court:

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, Ireland, and France!

She had her own quarters on the grounds:

James went for a little chat but she was 'putting on her face' so was not to be disturbed ..

A little later, when the court was 'in session', she knighted several people in a special ceremony and even Mcminnville's most famous Llama Caesar, aka "Caesar the No Drama Llama", had such honor bestowed on him!



'Caesar the No Drama Llama' is Oregon’s celebrity camelid, he's raised by Larry McCool, who is of Scottish descent himself, and who brings him into schools, nursing homes and community events.
Caesar's earned his moniker by being absolutely stoic, he's just bulletproof, he can handle anything. Nothing gets under his fluff!

(He's apparently also a self-identified Democrat and frequently turns up for candidates and progressive causes. He’s attended two women’s marches, Red for Ed rallies, Planned Parenthood events, and has been seen snuggling up to Gov. Kate Brown.
His social media page refers to this as “llama activism)

We walked around the booths for a while, had some coffee with shortbread and bought some Shepard pie for lunch:



As I mentioned and as you can imagine there's no Scottish fest without drinks:

      

Mead!

And we listened for a while to the 'Wicked Tinkers', an amazing Tribal Celtic band that, besides the bagpipe, uses a whole gamut of other Celtic instruments like big drums, rhythm poles, a ukulele and a great snare drum, a djembe, bronze age Irish horn, bodhran and even a didgeridoo.

We also watched a little bit of the Highland Dancer Competition, where 45 dancers from all over the Northwest and Canada competed in Premier and Pre-Premier Highland dances, the Sailor’s Hornpipe Challenge, Premier and Pre-Premier National dances and Choreography, both solo and duos!

Not the best picture, but how about these cuties competing in the dances for beginners ..

Last but not least we moved on to the 'big guns', where brawny men, and even some 'lasses', competed in games like caber-tossing, hefting a length of lumber up and away, the sheaf toss, the stone put (throwing of a big stone), the weight throw, and the Scottish hammer throw.

Lots of grunting, shouting and testosterone flying!

  

Needless to say, we had a great time! We'd never seen any of this in person and it was quite the experience!
And as far as the question 'what's under those kilts' goes, I'm pretty sure, and we saw quite some flying up during all that tossing and throwing, that most contenders wore some form of underwear!
(Apparently a survey revealed that 55% of kilt-wearing men say they wear dark underwear, and 38% go commando. 7% wear shorts or tights)

We ended the day at a birthday dinner for Nick, Doug's oldest son, conveniently held at Doug's house, which of course is right next door from us:

As usual, we forgot to take a picture of the 'spread' (succulent prime rib!), but I managed to get one of us all munching on dessert, a delicious Marionberry pie!